The Promise of Tomorrow

by EmberSynapse

Repost from my OG account GhostfaceTV. AU - The America We Knew #2. Tori and the group have successfully made it out of Wanagi and are on the hunt once more for a place to call home. They've lost a lot, but they still have each other and hope for a better life. The second installment introduces people from the past, new alliances and new territory, all of which come with a price.

12. What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

Dom spotted Giana by the med tent and turned back to the girls, trying to think of a plan. They were going to have to split up since Giana wouldn't take the enemy back to the warehouse district, but leaving them alone worried him. It was obvious they could handle themselves but he just liked it better when they had strength in numbers. The smell of smoke was thick around them and it was quickly evident that the fire from the car had caught the woods. They had had a relatively dry transition into summer and with the heat during the day, it looked like they were about to have a famous Colorado wildfire on their hands.

"We need to get out of here" said Dom, looking at the remaining vehicles on the other side of the fire. "I'll go to the council tent and get keys, you guys head to the furthest truck and be ready."

He ran into Giana by the council tent and she flagged him down. It looked like she was holding her arm and he was worried that maybe she had gotten hurt.

"Are you OK?" asked Dom.

"I got in a physical confrontation with one of these guards, blocked a punch. Nothing I can't handle."

"We need to leave before we get caught in this blaze. I'm gonna grab keys and we'll go."

Inside the council tent Gerry was searching through Jay's desk. He had his sniper rifle laying out on top of it and when Dom came in he nodded to him and went back to searching, but not before taking a slightly long look at his outfit.

"So you really are on the other team, then?" asked Gerry.

"No" said Dom, moving closer and lowering his voice, "I'm working both sides."

"I see." Gerry pulled out a box that had the truck keys in it and grabbed a pair. He looked at them for a second and then handed them to Dom. "Get out of here so you can continue on, we'll meet up in Oklahoma City in a week or so. I'm gonna relocate as many people as possible, if you can make it back and help that would be nice."

Dom nodded stiffly. "I'll do the best I can."

Outside Giana waited by the first truck and Dom held up a finger for her to wait a moment as he looked through the windows of each truck, trying to make it look like he was judging the best ride. When he got to the end he saw the girls crouched down on the side waiting for him.

"Gerry is gonna evacuate some people so go with him."

"Where is he taking them?"

"Oklahoma City."

Tori shook her head. "That's too far. Plus, we don't know where Marie and Cora are right now."

"Or Faye" said Diana.

"I'm sure they're fine" said Dom. "I'll look after them when I get back."

"I guess if you think it's best," said Tori, "we'll head out."

Dom bent down between the two girls and hugged them both at the same time, then planted a kiss on each of their cheeks. "I'll see you soon."

The sky was starting to dust orange overhead meaning they didn't have a lot of time to get back to the warehouse district and help before it got dark. Giana was waiting patiently still and when he got back to the truck he held up the keys and then pointed to the passenger seat, indicating he would drive. She smiled weakly and got in, buckling her seat belt after what had happened the last time. Her face still had some cuts and under her jaw on the left side was pretty bruised, but Dom couldn't help but think she was just as beautiful as ever. He could tell she was in pain but she smiled like nothing was wrong, eyes still illuminated even against the sun. After a minute of fumbling with keys to find the right one he got the truck started and took off, looking back at Tori and Diana in the rear view mirror before they crossed out onto the pipeline road.

Every night around the same time he got this feeling of nostalgia that he couldn't seem to shake. When he was about eleven they had a family game night, him and Matthew and their parents. After dinner they would all help with cleanup and then Matthew would get a deck of cards and some board games and set them up at the dinner table. Their dad was usually the host of sorts, being the dealer in card games, the banker in Monopoly, stuff like that. Outside of game night they didn't really spend a whole lot of time together between work and school and friends, so it was nice to get that one night a week where they could share stories of their lives and just enjoy the company and comfort of family. As they got older the game nights got further between. Matthew would be going to the movies with friends or their mom would be doing a Pottery class or something, until eventually they stopped altogether. No one really thought much of it at the time, but looking back under the circumstances he would give anything for one more round of Mao with all the people he had lost.

With the inner musings in his head making the drive a blur before he knew it they were within a mile or so of the warehouse district, easily noticeable by the sound of automatic gunfire. It was way louder than it had been at the camp, telling them there was a lot more people involved and a lot more guns. They exchanged a worried glance but kept their heads up, knowing they had to do what they were doing because giving up was simply not an option. The closer they got, the louder the shooting was until it was all they could hear, even with the windows up. The lights from the district lit up the area like a beacon since no one else had power and the light drew them in like flies. Dom parked about a hundred yards away from the gate so they could sneak around to the left side and find a way over or through the fence.

As they crept along the trees to the side of the district fence they noticed a lot of the soldiers were backed up in front of Calloway's building. Dom boosted Giana over the fence and then hopped over himself, and when they emerged out onto the scene with guns drawn they both stopped dead in their tracks. Only about a dozen people from the camp were still fighting and the other fifty or so were either dead or severely wounded. It looked like they had walked into a massacre and the ones that survived were caught so off guard they could barely fight back. Giana pointed to Calloway's building and pulled Dom closer to her.

"I'm gonna head in and see what's going on."

"OK" said Dom. "I'm gonna stay out here and help push them back."

"Be careful" said Giana, squeezing his hand then standing up to leave. He watched her go and then scanned the area for his friends.

He spotted Manny sitting up against a wall with his hands wrapped around his right thigh, the same leg that he'd been hit in before. People were still firing all over so it wasn't going to be easy to get from one side to the other, so he began backtracking to get as far away from the soldiers as possible. It was starting to get dark so uniforms didn't matter much since they couldn't be seen, so he was hoping to use the same cover of darkness to slip behind the camp fighters. It took a few minutes but his backtracking paid off and eventually he was slipping into the alley between buildings where Manny was. He approached him slowly as to not startle him but he quickly realized that Manny was almost gone. His leg was bleeding badly and there was already a large pool around him, and there was nothing around that could staunch the blood flow.

"Manny? It's Dom, can you hear me?"

He stirred for a second but didn't say anything.

"Manny, wake up buddy."

"Dad?" He blinked rapidly and studied Dom's face the best he could.

"No man it's me, Dom. From the camp?"

"Oh, hey Dom. I was wondering if I would see you here."

"How long ago did you get shot?"

"Hard to say. I think I passed out for a bit but I'm not sure."

"Well you're losing a lot of blood, we need to get you tied up or something to help slow it down."

Manny smiled and his head lolled to the side. "I had a feeling you would take care of me. You remind me of my big brother."

Dom felt a dull blow in his gut. "Where is he now?"

"He died a few years back. He hung himself in the basement of our old house."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's fine, you know. The past is the past." Manny started to yawn a little and his blinking was getting slower to the point his eyes were almost constantly shut.

"Hey Manny, stay with me man" said Dom, tapping his face on each side. "You gotta stay awake."

"I'm just gonna take a nap for a little bit and then I'll be...OK..." After that he exhaled one last time and his head nodded forward til his chin rested against his chest, and he was gone.

Dom rubbed his face with both of his hands and his eyes stung. This kid was even younger than his brother, not even old enough to have graduated high school, and now he was dead, lying in an alleyway by himself with no family. It was a tragedy, but he took solace in the little comfort that he could be there for him in his last moments. Dom knew he liked him, and he liked Manny too. He reminded him of Matthew in a lot of ways. Vibrant and willing to try anything, eager to learn new things and keep his brain occupied. The world had lost another great person, and no one would ever know.

That was really the straw that broke the camel's back. Dom felt a rage burning inside, a ball of black heat that contained the names of everyone he had lost during the Conflict. The faces of the little kids that had encountered on the road and had to leave for one reason or another. The bodies of people on the bridge when they had first left Chicago and the bodies on the highway between the warehouse district and the camp. The man that was shot by the overturned gas truck. The exploded bodies of the soldiers at the camp from the truck blowing up. All of these things swirled deep in his stomach and he could practically feel the fire pumping through his veins. He didn't care what happened to himself. He didn't care what loyal soldiers he had to take out to do it. He was going to kill Calloway and put an end to this, and the time to do that was now.

He walked out of the alleyway without even looking both directions, turning to head towards Calloway's building. Marie was kneeling down by the side of a smaller building that held electrical equipment and she saw him pass by. He barely even acknowledged her presence, his mindset of killing Calloway completely overriding everything else. She got up and ran up behind him, pulling him sideways behind the building she was next to.

"Dom? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to kill Calloway. I should have done it before when I first met him. I've let this go on too long."

"Are you crazy?" asked Marie, her voice rising almost a little too much. "If you walk into his office and kill him you'll die immediately after."

"I don't care anymore. If my life is the last one to go to get his, I'm OK with that."

"Well I'm not" said Marie, reaching out to grab his arm and stop him from leaving. "And I know Tori and Diana, Cora, they wouldn't be OK with that either."

"I'm in a unique position here" said Dom. "I can walk right up into that building and take him out within a minute. No one would expect it."

"Then you would be full of more holes than a YA dystopian novel within seconds. Do you not care about how we feel?"

He stopped for a second and let the words sink in. He was doing this because of the losses he felt, so it wouldn't really be fair to add another loss to their belt. "I know it isn't fair, Marie, but I can't just sit back and not do anything."

An explosion rocked the ground they were standing on and debris quickly filled the air. Dom covered Marie's head and tried to position them under the lip of the roof of the building they were standing next to but it wasn't large enough, and his shoulder caught a piece of brick. It wasn't big enough to do any real damage but it still hurt, and he had to hold his arm like it was in a sling to get relief. There was a huge hole in the left side of the rec building, showing that the camp fighters must have gotten a hold of some of Calloway's grenades. People started pouring out of building and heading towards them, a lot of which fell to the ground under fire. Dom looked back and saw the remaining campers were still fighting, shooting carefully at the soldiers charging in their direction. He noticed one of the fighters was Jay, and he and Chet were regrouping who was left to advance up a little ways in the chaos of the explosion.

"Marie, you gotta let me go. This is getting crazy."

She looked at him with pleading eyes, those electric blues so reminiscent of the ocean. "I can't give you my blessing to go on a suicide mission, but I guess you have to do what you have to do."

"And what he has to do is stay still" said a female voice that they both recognized instantly. "Both of you stay still, hands on your head."

The woman had a pistol pointed at the back of Dom's head as she walked forward and stopped within a few paces of them. There wasn't a whole lot of room between the small building and the fence so they wouldn't be able to try to fight her off without one of them getting shot.

"Cora?" said Marie questioningly. "What the hell is going on?"

"I can't let you kill Calloway."

Marie looked as confused as ever. "Why not?"

A few things happened at once. A conversation between Diana and Dom flashed before his eyes. He remembered talking to her about Cora one day after work in Wanagi while they waited for everyone else to get back. After that a second conversation between him and Giana flashed, the one they had when they had initially gotten their mission details in Calloway's office, and finally everything snapped into place. "It was you"

"What?" asked Marie.

"Giana told me that they had someone else in the camp that was feeding them information, but she didn't know who. I don't know if she really didn't know or if they thought it would be better if we didn't know each other, but it was Cora."

"How is that even possible?" asked Marie. "She's been with us for how long now?"

"It started back in Wanagi" said Dom, who was quickly cut off by Cora.

"And it all had to do with Shawn."

"Right" said Dom. "Diana told me that you guys had a thing at one point, and I talked to a woman that said Shawn used to make trips out of the city for an entire day sometimes to go somewhere, which we guessed to be to meet Calloway."

"I followed him one day," said Cora, "cause he pissed me off. He had hit me because he was upset over something with his little gang and I told him I didn't want any part of it. He said I should support him in whatever he did, and that I wasn't being a good girlfriend. I told him to go to hell so he backhanded me." Cora held her free hand to her jaw. "I didn't say anything then but I had made the decision to get back at him, and I knew the best way to do that was with Calloway. No one else knew about him, not even the gang, but he told me things in confidence since we were together. One day when he left I followed him, made sure he didn't see me, and when he left the meeting I went in."

"So you introduced yourself to Calloway, told him that Shawn was selling weed and smuggling alcohol so he would be pissed and punish him."

"Basically, yes" said Cora.

"That explains why Shawn got killed so fast at the celebration" said Marie.

"I didn't know that Calloway was going to kill him, honestly," said Cora, "but it's no skin off my back. I think he deserved what he got."

"So since Calloway was so nice to you you decided to do something for him in return. Am I right?" asked Dom.

"I told him I would keep an eye on Wanagi, let him know if anything suspicious happened. We met once or twice and then I heard he was coming to town, but I didn't know what he was going to do. After that I didn't see him until we saw him together at the hotel." Cora kept her grip on the pistol strong with it still aimed at Dom. "He had one of the guards slip me a note while you guys weren't looking and we kept in contact."

Dom thought for a few minutes and then laughed a little bit, shaking his head. "So you're the reason we got stopped the night we were going to try to spot one of their convoys."

"Yeah, but that didn't go too bad did it?"

"Manny got shot and two of Calloway's soldiers died. I would say that's pretty bad. And now this," Dom stretched his arms out in front of him to signify the massive amount of bodies strewn across the ground, "how is this not bad?"

"Could be worse, they could all be dead. Anyway, I know you're a decent guy Dom but Calloway is on the path to getting us back to where we were before. I don't want to live like this forever and if some people need to go for that to happen, then so be it."

"You know what Cora? You're a real bitch." Marie had turned so she could look her directly in the eye when she said it, a move that kind of surprised Cora.

"Cheeky, especially with a gun in your face."

"Yeah well I've never been one to back down."

"Well hopefully one of these days it doesn't get you killed."

As soon as Cora finished her sentence a shot fired from their left, and she fell to the ground instantly. Marie and Dom both jumped to their feet and spun around to find their savior, and Giana showed up on the other side of the fence. Marie spotted her first and held up her gun but Dom wasn't far behind, quickly placing a hand on her arm to push it down.

"Giana, what's going on?" asked Dom.

"She was going to shoot you. Can't have that, can we?" She smiled and climbed the fence in a smooth motion.

"Where's Calloway?"

"Inside, where he always is. Consorting with the enemy now, are we?" asked Giana, pointing to Marie.

"She's a friend of mine, from before."

"Interesting. Can she fight?"

"Yes" said Marie.

"Well come on then the both of you."

"Where are we going?" asked Dom.

"Blondie is gonna go to the truck and bring it up a little closer and keep it ready while you and I enter the belly of the beast."

Marie took the keys from Dom and headed for the truck while he and Giana broke for Calloway's building. There was still gunfire all around them and the camp fighters were pushing for the door, so Giana thought that Calloway would be making a break for the back of the building in case he needed to get out quick. As they made their way to the back of the district a truck pulled in behind them, the lights shining bright on the pavement in the dark. Tori and Diana got out and kept low, and Dom couldn't help but smile that they went against what he asked and showed up to help. He knew that no matter what happened they would always be there, and that was a huge comfort in their current situation. The two of them grouped with Marie and headed to the truck while Giana and Dom circled the side of the building to get to the back door, but they were caught between soldiers and camp fighters that were firing at each other. They crouched down and leaned against each other's backs, weapons trained out as they assessed the situation. Faye's friend was leading a group of fighters that were firing at random towards the guards by the back door, seemingly to try and get them to leave their post so they could storm the door. The soldiers fired back with precision, hitting Faye's friend in the chest twice. He fell forward and landed face first on the ground, already dead before he finished moving. The camp fighters backed off a few paces and Giana pulled Dom toward the door, using the downtime to get inside safely.

Inside Calloway's office he was sitting behind his desk with a guard on each side of him. When they saw Giana and Dom walk in they made to leave them room but Calloway stopped them both by reaching out his arms, so they stepped back into their spots and stood silently. Dom nodded to each of them and they nodded back quickly, eyes set on the wall in front of them. Calloway looked tired, as if he had been pouring over intel all day and night to try and come up with the next plan of action. He smiled up at Dom like he was happy to see him, and the feeling kind of made him antsy. It was almost like Calloway saw him as a prodigal son, and he definitely didn't want to be anything of the sort. The room seemed a lot smaller than before with the potential for a firefight, and the claustrophobic feeling raised his heartrate and his body temperature, making him even more uncomfortable.

"So how about this madness?" asked Calloway. "Who would have thought the farmers would be brave enough to actually attack the nest?"

"I don't think you give them enough credit" said Giana. "Eventually if someone is kept down long enough they'll strike with everything they have in a last ditch effort."

"I suppose that's true" said Calloway, getting up from his chair to pace. "I didn't expect them to be so well armed. How come we didn't have any intel on their weapons? Dom?"

"I never got to see their munitions tent, sir" said Dom. "I worked mostly away from the camp."

Calloway walked to the liquor cart and poured five drinks, one for everyone in the room. The two guards accepted theirs silently with a nod and Giana and Dom accepted theirs with a quick thanks. Giana looked down at the liquid as it swirled around her glass, then she sniffed it and downed it in one.

"Ryan," said Giana, "do you remember the day we first met?"

"Of course I do. You had just shot a woman that was trying to rob you and it seemed like it didn't even phase you."

"If you let things bother you you become vulnerable" said Giana, her eyes glancing sideways at Dom.

"That's why I try to stay as separated as I can from most things" said Calloway. "Emotional decisions get people killed."

"Well so do unemotional decisions I've learned."

Calloway watched her closely and Dom shifted his weight from one leg to the other, starting to get antsy. "I'm not sure I follow."

"You know, I was with you in the beginning," said Giana, "but you've changed. It isn't about bringing back what we had anymore, it's all about power." The guards stood against the wall as straight as ever with their weapons cocked and ready to go. "It took me finally connecting with someone that has their head on straight to realize what was happening. After my mom died in the beginning of this thing I was lost and needed somewhere to go, and I fell into your cunning words like a desperate child. I can't do it anymore."

"So what, you fell in love and now you want to go live in the woods and scrape the bottom of the barrel for the rest of your life?" Calloway sounded angry and the tension in the room raised exponentially.

"Maybe, is that so bad?"

"I just don't understand why you would want to turn your back on what we've built here just to go make things harder on yourself. Haven't I given you everything you need?" Calloway pointed to the guards and they raised their rifles, pointing them at Dom and Giana's chests. They raised their own weapons and aimed back, their breathing shallow and senses heightened.

"I've gotten most of the things I need for myself, honestly" said Giana. "I may have stuck around here but the food I ate and the clothes I wore I got myself. I siphoned gas from dead cars. I raided abandoned markets. Where were you?"

"Coordinating the effort" said Calloway.

"You mean hiding in your office behind a wall of soldiers" said Dom. "You don't deserve anything you have."

"So this is it then?" asked Calloway. "You're gonna leave here with your new boyfriend and become an enemy of the Calloway faction? Throw away everything we've worked for?"

"I'm leaving, yes, but this isn't it. Trust me on that."

Calloway smiled wickedly and waved his arm down for the guards to lower their weapons. "You really have no idea what's going on do you?"

"You're trying to bait me, I know you as well as you know yourself."

Calloway laughed outright and ran a hand over his short hair. "You can't possibly think I really told you everything, do you?" He licked his lips and pulled open a drawer in his desk, took out a folder and dropped it on top. "You only have half the picture, sweetheart."

"That's good enough for me" said Giana. "If half the picture looks as bad as this I don't even want to know what the whole story brings to the table."

"Would it interest you to know that the President is still alive?"

Dom's eyebrows raked his hairline and Giana didn't say anything.

"Because he is. I talked to him recently actually." He pulled out the top piece of paper in the file. "He's holed up somewhere, of course, and he's planning on meeting up with me to discuss plans of getting America back on her feet."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll be real thrilled to see what you have here when that forest fire wipes everything out."

"Fact of the matter is, I have the President of the United States' ear. He's looking to me to find out what is going on in this country right now, and whatever I tell him is what he knows."

Dom couldn't help but worry at the level of control Calloway had with that said. Obviously, he could have been lying, but it was always the safer bet to assume he was telling the truth. The way Giana's body tightened up told him that she knew he wasn't messing around, and their need to get out of that room suddenly increased by a large margin.

"What do you hope to accomplish? If you help him rebuild you won't have absolute power. You'll probably get some kind of Medal of Honor and maybe be appointed as Defense Contractor, but you won't be running a Dictatorship like you are here."

"You're assuming I'm going to help him, and not the other way around."

"Giana we need to go" said Dom.

"Listen to your boyfriend," said Calloway, "click your heels together and pray you find yourself somewhere that I can't find you. Because I promise, when I bring this country back to its former glory, you won't want to be found by me. Being a traitor will carry some heavy punishment."

Calloway sat back in his chair and smiled silently. Giana stared through him with pure hatred and Dom backed up to the door and passed through it, pulling her along with him. They immediately heard footsteps pounding toward them as it shut, and they took off straight along the fence to get to where the truck was waiting for them. The night sky was a lot brighter than it usually was because of the forest fire roaring through the trees between the warehouse district and the camp. The air was already starting to get thick with smoke and they coughed as they ran, hoping that they wouldn't trip over any bodies on their way out. Dom noticed a few people from camp as they ran, their bodies twisted and contorted in different ways. He saw faces that he remembered just a week ago smiling and laughing at the camp, enjoying a piece of Marla's fresh bread. It wasn't fair that so many people had to die because of one man's greed, but it was something that had happened all through history and they knew this probably wouldn't be the last time. Humans were the way they were and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

On their way back to the truck another explosion took out part of the barracks that Dom had once been assigned to. Everyone around hit the deck and covered their heads so they wouldn't get knocked out by any shrapnel and as soon as Dom stood up he saw Colin and Charlie company moving with tactical precision around the corner. He fired off some shots in their direction and they all stopped, took a knee, and aimed towards him. Giana pulled him sideways behind another small electrical building and they each took a side, peeking out to see where Colin had moved. Jay and the others were weaving in and out of the alleys between buildings with ease under cover of the night, especially since the smoke was thickening the air to the point that visibility was almost a luxury. Figuring it would be a waste of energy and an unnecessary risk to try and hunt Colin down Dom tapped Giana on the side and nodded towards the truck, signaling it was time for them to go. She took off and he followed after her, shooting a few more rounds back towards Colin and his group just for good measure.

They reached the truck where Tori, Diana and Marie were waiting, surprisingly with another guest. Faye was lying in the back of the truck with a gunshot wound to her left side and Diana was sitting next to her helping to keep her comfortable. Tori smiled as they approached, even holding out her arms to hug Giana. Dom guessed that Marie had filled them in on what happened with Cora and Tori would definitely want to thank someone that saved one of her friends, that's just the way she was. With one last look at the district with the fire behind it and thick smoke-filled air they piled into the Humvee and took off toward Oklahoma City, hoping beyond hope that Gerry and the others were safely on their way there at that moment.

Faye had taken a bullet to the side as she helped the camp fighters shoot their way to the back of the warehouse district. Apparently the plan was to fend off as many soldiers as possible while they got a lay of the land and hopefully discovered their stockpile. Jay wanted to load a truck or two with food and weapons that they could take back and use while they went over the information they had gathered to plan a second attack. Little did he know that Cora had relayed everything to Calloway before they even left, so they didn't have a chance. His men were waiting for them as soon as they arrived and the first wave of fighters were basically mowed down like they weren't even equipped to fight back. Faye had stayed towards the sides of each line, having learned during her scavenging trips about using cover and changing locations frequently. Everything went fine for the first half hour or so until someone from her main group had gotten shot, and she went out against her better judgment to try and help. As she was bent down trying to keep the girl awake she took a bullet to the side just above the kidney, but Jay was quick to take the soldier out that had clipped her. He helped get the both of them to the back of the line where a couple of the med campers were tending to wounds and they remained there until Tori and the others passed by on the way to the truck.

Giana sat in the passenger seat and held hands with Dom as he drove. She had come a long way from when she first joined Calloway, and that was something that helped to keep her going. When she first found him and his faction they were still relatively small and she was broken from the loss of her mother, and Calloway's way with words drew her in almost immediately. He promised her that if she helped him round up an army and train them that they would have anything they could want and it would be like the Conflict never happened. Her life was in a sort of whirlwind at the time and she wanted nothing more than a little bit of stability, so his promise of getting back to normal was all she needed to jump into his plans and and immerse herself in the hunt, anything to get her mind off of what she had lost. Over time the constant use of force started to weigh on her conscience, especially when she wondered what her mother would have thought about the way she was going about things. She had come so close to losing herself in all of it until one day she shot a man in the leg because he refused to join them. The other soldiers in the group took a step back from her, and in that moment she realized that even her own soldiers were scared of her, which meant that she had crossed the line and something needed to be done. After that she started staying behind on the supply runs for a little while, telling Calloway that she wasn't feeling well and wanted to try to work out and sweat out the flu or whatever she had instead. Eventually she got a grip on herself and shortly after she met Dom, and everything seemed to fall in place from there. It was easy to consider herself lucky that Dom had come into her life when he did, since she wasn't sure where she would be without him.

Diana had taken the time to help nurse Faye back to health as a sort of break from everything that was happening. Her life had had so many crazy twists and turns with finding out she was magical, to losing her father, finding out her real father was evil, losing him as well and almost losing her new sister that she also didn't know she had. There had been such a rollercoaster of emotions that she was thankful to finally settle down in Chicago and have some downtime to herself, and the crisp, cool air of winter in the city was something she held onto in that moment in the back of the truck. The fateful day that she waltzed into the record store, completely unaware of who was inside or how it would change her life, was a day that she was really grateful for, seeing as if she hadn't met Tori or Matthew she would have had to deal with the Conflict and everything that happened all by herself. All things considered she still didn't even really know anyone in the group that well, since they had only been together for a couple of months, but the things she learned about them in those couple of months were usually the things that took normal friends years to learn about each other. The solidity of their resolve, the lengths they were willing to go to to save each other and keep their group together. They were all really lucky to have each other in a time where trust wasn't easily gained and being on your own was almost certain death, and she made sure she remembered that every time she looked at their faces. Her relationship with Tori was unchanged from the beginning, but she wanted to take some time in the coming weeks to actually spend some time with and grow with her. She felt bad that their entire relationship had been nothing but fighting and surviving, and they didn't have any time for each other. They had only been on one date, and she was hoping to change that as soon as possible with some luck and good fortune.

Marie sat in the back and looked out the window as the truck sailed along the highway. She had grown so much as a person since they left the city that she hardly even knew herself anymore. She learned that she loved to garden, something no one that knew her before would have ever guessed, and she learned that she had the capacity to take a human life if need be. Sometimes people that were presented with the situation where they needed to kill someone would go through with it but they didn't come out unscathed, usually being racked with guilt to the point they either got so depressed they would eventually enter a psych ward or they would outright commit suicide. Luckily for her, if anyone would see that as lucky, she didn't fall into either category. It wasn't easy, removing a human from the world, but if she had to to save her friends or herself, it was something she knew she could do. With so many people out for blood, there wouldn't be a shortage of situations where they would have to kill to protect themselves, but she just hoped it wouldn't last too long. How long could they really go on with such a cutthroat attitude before everyone was wiped out or banned together? Months? Years? How many people would be left in the end? There were so many questions she had that no one could answer, questions that everyone else thought of themselves but no one really wanted to discuss out loud. In a time with such uncertainty people that lived in groups usually tried to talk about happy memories or remind each other of what they did have instead of dwelling on the negatives. It helped to keep everyone going and sometimes it could even distract people from the fact that they were starving or had dehydration headaches. Marie tried to be that person in their group when she got the chance, the one to remind people during downtime about how they used to go to clubs or go to football games on Fridays when they were in high school. Then that would usually get a conversation started on the players of the game and the boys would get all riled up talking about their favorite teams. It wasn't always easy to be upbeat and constantly try to keep everyone else up, but it sure was better than the alternative.

Dom had gotten the confrontation that he wanted but the outcome was less than spectacular. There was nothing that could have been done, though, since if either one of them had pulled the trigger on Calloway they would have been dead themselves, but it still felt like a wasted opportunity. Who knew how long it would be before they had another shot at him, or if they would even be able to find him again? The forest fire was going to wipe out everything within probably a hundred miles or more, especially since there were no more national emergency crews to put the fire out. Would it keep spreading and destroy everything? He wasn't sure, but he did know that the warehouse district would be swallowed up within the next couple days. Calloway was probably frantic in his office, trying to figure out a way to move all of his precious supplies somewhere else. The west was pretty much done so he figured that Calloway would go east like they were. He also hoped that they wouldn't end up in the same spot, but it was likely since most people were flocking to cities for a better chance to find stores to scavenge from. Eventually they would have to try to put down roots again somewhere, but that somewhere they weren't sure of. They would regroup in Oklahoma City and talk to the other survivors, see what everyone else had to say about it and probably come to some sort of vote. It seemed weird to vote with a bunch of strangers on where they were going to live, but of course, everything seemed weird compared to the way life was before the Conflict. They had to get used to outhouses and cooking small game over fires to get nutrition, as well as boiling water for safe drinking and learning to ignore body odor. He was proud of how far everyone had come since the beginning, he just wished that Matthew could be there to see what they had accomplished.

Tori sat behind Dom and watched Diana through the window to the back of the truck. She found it very soothing to see Diana doing something good with her magic, since she seemed so upset and afraid of what she did to the guy with the grenade. It took her a while to snap out of it after that and Tori was worried about her for a while, but it seemed like she was coming back down to normal. They didn't really have a baseline for normal anymore, so it was just whatever they wanted to consider normal at the time. Faye was lying back against Diana with her head leaning against Diana's shoulder. She had her hands over the wound on her side and Diana had her hands over Faye's, and a sort of faint glow emanated from underneath them. All of the exhaustion in the truck weighed heavy on Tori's stomach and she closed her eyes with her head against the window. Even though everyone was really tired and sore and scared, she could feel an underlying layer of love and respect between all of them. Everyone in that truck had done something at some point to save someone else, or done something to make their life easier or more enjoyable somehow, and they were really a family. Dom had called them family at a time but in that moment, driving down the highway broken, beaten but still with hope in their hearts, she really felt the love and it helped dull the pain of losing her parents and sister. Her life from the day she had broken up with Jade was a constant work in progress of staying on the up and up, and when she found Diana she knew that all of her hard worked had paid off. She hadn't clicked with anyone that well in years, and just her luck, something had to happen to complicate things. Even though they were displaced and life was hard, she swore she wasn't going to let that get in the way of her happiness and that every day moving forward she would try to show Diana how much she cared about her in new and exciting ways. What was the point of fighting, of scraping by and doing the best they could, if they didn't enjoy each other's company?

Calloway would be set up somewhere new within a week and his operations would resume. Jay would probably be displaced for a while if he made it out alive, and his alcoholism would most likely keep him from recovering the camp. Most of the people that were there had fled anyway, so finding people to start a new one would be difficult, if not impossible. There were more survivors out there somewhere, and eventually someone would rise up and get a real city started, one where democracy reigned once again and people were actually safe. Where provisions were distributed fairly and no one person had too much power. No one knew how long it would take for this to happen, or how many more people would have to die in the process, but they knew that the fighting would reach a fever pitch at some point and the tables would turn in someone's favor. Where they would lay their heads at night until then was up in the air. Tori reached over and took Marie's hand, squeezing it and concentrating on the warmth. The Conflict was definitely not over, but the planning for the next stage was about to begin.